Subject: (urth) Burns redeems himself

From: Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 14:15:14 +0000

Millennium has just released the first half of THE
BOOK OF THE NEW SUN in the UK under the title SHADOW
AND CLAW, as the leadoff title in their Fantasy
Masterworks series; SWORD AND CITADEL follows in
December. SHADOW AND CLAW is a nicely-produced trade
paperback, reprinting the UK hardcover text, which is
much more readable than that in the Tor Orb edition.
What's more, Jim Burns has provided a fairly
impressive cover illustration, far superior to his
SHORT SUN covers; it shows Severian somewhat in
Pennington mode, against an effectively archaic urban
backdrop. A welcome change.

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From: Jesper Svedberg <jesper.svedberg at mailbox.swipnet.se>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 12:56:35 +0000

> From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nicholas=20Gevers?= <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Burns redeems himself
> Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 14:15:14 -0800 (PST)
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> 

Redeems himself? That cover easily plants itelf on my "worst cover
ever" list, it's amazingly ugly, his _OB'sW_ cover is much nicer.
I think they should use Pennington's old Shadow of the Torturer
cover, it pictures almost the same scene, but is infinetly more
atmospherical and beautiful.
What's the difference between the UK hardcover text and the test in
the Orb edition?
Are all the titles in Millennium's Fantasy and SF Masterwork series
trade paperbacks? (There are generally three different sizes of
paperback's in the UK it seems, one is the size of a normal massmarket
paperback, one is the size of a normal hardcover and the last one is
somewhere in between. Are we talking about the hardcover sized type
here?)

  // Jesper Svedberg

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From: Nicholas Gevers <vermoulian at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 23:27:10 +0000

--- Jesper Svedberg
> somewhere in between. Are we talking about the

Tastes differ; and compare the Millennium cover art to
the Sword & Sorcery bilge on the Orb cover!

As for the Millennium text and format: the hardcover
text they've reprinted is of a much more readable size
than that of the Orb edition, which was reduced to a
painfully small dimension to minimise the number of
pages, I suppose; and the format is B, the one between
mass market paperback and hardcover. And all the
Fantasy Masterworks will be in B format: already out
is TIME AND THE GODS by Lord Dunsany, an omnibus of
six early collections; and in April there's Eddison's
THE WORM OUROBOROS and TALES OF THE DYING EARTH by
Jack Vance, an omnibus of all four Dying Earth volumes.

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From: Jesper Svedberg <jesper.svedberg at mailbox.swipnet.se>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 18:00:59 +0000

> Subject: Re: (urth) Re: Burns redeems himself
> Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 23:27:10 -0800 (PST)
> MIME-Version: 1.0

I won't argue about taste but I just want to say that I'm not Don Maitz'
greatest fan either, his BotNS covers range from good (the two that Orb
uses on the omnibuses) to pretty horrible (the other two), but they're
all technically well crafted and the good ones are IMO atmospherical and
not at all as clichéd as their reputation.
The Millennium cover on the other hand is technically inadequate,
clichéd, totally lacking in atmosphere and plain ugly. (The guys at
Millennium must really have something against Wolfe, the cover of
_The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ is also horrible buyond belief.)
Bruce Pennington's cover art and the art on the Swedish edition by
[Something] Gordon are really good though, and could have been used
instead. (But if I could choose, then I'd hire Jeffrey Jones or Frank
Frazetta to do the covers, both are truly fabulous artists that would
really catch Urth's atmosphere.)

> Jack Vance, an omnibus of all four Dying Earth volumes.

Mm, format B, my favourite. :)
I really don't have a problem with reading small print, I even like
it of some reason.
The Fantasy Masterworks series looks REALLY interesting, (I'd buy
the entire series if the BotNS cover hadn't been so ugly, I think
I'm going to buy the Orb edition instead :)) all of the books
planned for release so far have been on my to-buy list for ages,
especially Jack Vance's TALES OF THE DYING EARTH, which is almost
as good as Wolfe himself.
Also planned for release so far are _Little, Big_ by John Crowley and
Robert E. Howard's Conan series collected in two volumes, I've also
heard rumors of M. John Harrison's Virconium series.
Other titles that I wouldn't mind seeing would be _The Broken Sword_
by Poul Anderson, something by Avram Davidson (perhaps _The Phoenix
in the Mirror_) and _Nifft the Lean_ by Michael Shea.

  // Jesper Svedberg

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From: Kevin J. Maroney <kmaroney at crossover.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 17:50:15 +0000

>the Sword & Sorcery bilge on the Orb cover!

The Orb covers are cropped versions of the original Simon and
Schuster/Pocket editions by Don Maitz. I have always disliked Maitz's cover
for _Citadel_ and regret seeing it return on the Orb _Sword and Citadel_,
but I have always loved his cover for _Shadow of the Torturer_ and am glad
to see it used on the Orb _Shadow and Claw_. 

Tastes differ.

My favorite Wolfe cover is the Gollanz hc edition of _Free Live Free_.
Unfortunately, it's a cover for Tom Disch's _On Wings of Song_ which found
its way on to the wrong book. 

--
Kevin Maroney | kmaroney at crossover.com | (212) 777-1190